BY MICHAEL RAINE
Don Langlie
Georgia on My Mind
“ The glitz and glamour of it , it ’ s not about that for me . I don ’ t care if we meet in a barn someplace out in Kentucky ; what I want to do is learn ,” says Langlie . He laughs as he says it , but he is being completely sincere . “ I don ’ t mean to be so disingenuous about the work we ’ ve put into this , but I do think that it really comes down to the heart and soul of what we ’ re trying to learn and how we apply it – how best to apply it and communicate with our publishers and vice versa , publishers communicating with dealers .”
Building on the success of the format in recent years , convention organizers have again presented the education program in three tracks : track one being for print music specialists with less than three years of experience ; track two for print music managers and buyers ; and track three for business owners and managers . There are also general sessions such as Alfred Music CEO Carl Fisher ’ s “ Reach Your Peak ” presentation in which he will discuss the four principles of “ deliberate practice ” and how business owners can apply them . There will be the “ Intricacies , Quirks and Practicalities of Copyrights ” session and the popular “ Great Minds of the RPMDA Membership ” general session will return once again .
One topic that Langlie is sure will generate much discussion in Atlanta is Hal Leonard ’ s recent purchase of e-commerce business Sheet Music Plus . “ It has the entire print industry on notice and concerned . I think Hal Leonard is a great corporation and demonstrated themselves to be
very supportive of dealers and music education and music publishing . So from my perspective , I ’ m looking ahead at it as an opportunity and have a lot of faith in the process and that it will not be a game changer , but who knows ? Time will tell ,” Langlie offers . “ I think it would be wise for more dealers to approach it with conversation and education and that is what the RPMDA is about . We ’ ll be sure there are opportunities for those discussions at this convention and I would hope that people are considering coming to the convention to stay abreast of that particular situation .”
Certainly one of the more anticipated opportunities at this year ’ s RPMDA Convention is the chance to peek inside the operations of one of the print music industry ’ s largest retailers , J . W . Pepper . “ I have a lot of respect for that company and they ’ ve done a lot of great things and they ’ ve opened up their warehouse to get a look inside . You know , it ’ s a chance to find out how the biggest in the industry operates and I think that ’ s not a very frequent opportunity ,” says Langlie , adding it ’ s one of the things he is personally looking forward to the most .
The theme of this year ’ s convention is the straightforward “ Because Print Matters ” because , well , it ’ s self-evident . “ I am a very pragmatic person and so when it comes down to it , I don ’ t buy into a lot of the fluff that makes a headline . No offense …” laughs Langlie to Canadian Music Trade . “ I am very much to the point and if you have a business that involves print , well then it matters as much as anything else in your business … I ’ m learning the longer I ’ ve been here – and I am 10 years an owner and have 20-something years in the industry – that every portion of this matters and so I wanted to make sure that if you ’ re going to deal in this and have an interest in it , well then it matters that you ’ re there – that you learn about it and that you treat it as a profit centre , because if it ’ s not , get rid of it , and if it is , then do everything you should do to make it more of a profit centre . And this is one of those ways to do it .”
TRACK 1 : WORKING WITH EDUCATORS : CLASSROOM MUSIC TEACHERS WILLI ZWOZDESKY , LONG & MCQUADE , VANCOUVER , BC
Over the past couple of years , the RPMDA has had a series of track one sessions about servicing and selling to a particular segment of the music educator market . This year , Willi Zwozdesky of Long & McQuade in Vancouver will discuss working with and selling to elementary and middle school classroom music teachers . “ The elementary music educator is the bottom of the pyramid , and by that I mean that ’ s where the greatest number of teachers work and as you go up through high school , there are fewer and fewer [ music teachers ]. But it is not just the books ; it is also associated with instrument sales , anything from simple things like recorders and ukuleles to sets of guitars to the beginning band method books and beginning student level band instruments . And then it is also coupled with rentals , so hello ! I ’ ve never tried to quantify this as it ’ s pretty hard to say where that spider web ends , but you could certainly tell where it begins ,” says Zwozdesky .
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